ESWL to Treat Kidney Stones

Healthy kidneys serve the purposes of effectively regulating fluid levels in the body, activating Vitamin D to foster optimal bone health, filtering toxic waste from the blood, and releasing hormones responsible for both blood pressure regulation and red blood cell production. Healthy kidneys should also be capable of regulating the blood’s levels of sodium, phosphorus, and potassium.Learn about the ESWL stone blasting procedure.

Kidney Disease

Unfortunately, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cited a National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey reporting that every 1 in 3 American adults is at risk for the development of some form of kidney disease. It is estimated that more than 25 million American adults have a kidney disease that they are completely unaware of.

Despite the unquestionable danger of compromised kidneys, many kidney diseases are commonly asymptomatic. The absence of symptoms may cause adults with kidney diseases to have a false sense of security that compels them to neglect their steadily rising need for treatment.

Kidney Stones

One kidney affliction that is far from asymptomatic is kidney stone disease . Though there is no single leading cause for kidney stone development, they generally form whenever any number of irregularities creates a higher amount of crystal-forming substances in an individual’s urine than the urine can effectively dilute.

Deficiencies and Infections

Kidney stones might manifest in the form of calcium oxalate, straiten, uric acid, cystine, or a number of rarer variations. The different variations of kidney stones are generally attributed to different vitamin deficiencies and infections, but all variations are equally troublesome.

Symptoms and Lifestyle Impairment

Kidney stones can be incredibly painful, and if left untreated, they can be dramatically debilitating in all areas of an individual’s life. The interference of kidney stones in an individual’s ability to consistently maintain a normal work schedule and social life can be just as a vexing as the frequent need for intensive medical treatment and hospitalization.

Kidney Stone Prevalence

In 1994, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey published findings that illustrated the prevalence of *kidney stones to be as high as 8.8% among all American citizens*. The study found that the prevalence of kidney stones was 10.6% in men and 7.1% in women. Kidney stones were largely more common in overweight individuals than normal-weight individuals.

ESWL

Thankfully, kidney stones are far from untreatable. One reliable form of kidney stone treatment is ESWL, also known as stone blasting.

Essentially, the kidney stones are destroyed with a miniature concussive force generated from outside of the body. The shockwaves from the force are powerful enough to pulverize the stones into a dust-like consistency, at which point they can be much more easily passed.

ESWL is most effective when the targeted kidney stone is sufficiently elevated enough, or close enough to the kidney, for the full brunt of the pulverizing wave to reach. Practitioners have found that kidney stones with a predominantly calcium-based composition are somewhat easier to destroy than other variations.

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